A team of researchers from Italy has developed a prenatal screening method that could predict what hand will mostly use a baby after birth. This method uses 4-dimensional ultrasonography to map and characterize fetuses’ hand movements.

For the study, the scientists recruited 29 women pregnant with one baby and monitored the fetuses at weeks 14, 18, and 22. They revealed that approximately at week 18, the fetuses had well-established hand dominance. Afterwards, the researchers tracked the children for about 9 years, and their results were quite good, the method’s accuracy was 89–100%.

The researchers conclude: “Our method for reliably assessing handedness prenatally may help to catch ‘early’ neurological problems and to counteract child development disparity signaled by handedness.”